Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/158

 the gulf, to dream at leisure of the immense riches that his love of gold led him to imagine were buried up in this abyss. It was probable that during one of these perigrinations [sic], he had been attacked with a dizziness, and fallen. Daniel, who appeared to feel, more sensibly than any other person, the horror of this accident, proposed to have the door walled-up, and his suggestion was immediately followed.

Hubert, invested with the title, returned to the province of Courland, leaving to justice V the necessary power for managing for him the domain of R—sitten. The project for the construction of a new castle was abandoned, and they solely occupied themselves in propping up the ruins of the old one.

Several years after these events, Hubert re-appeared one day at R—sitten: it was at the beginning of autumn. During the short stay that he made at the castle, he had frequent secret interviews with the justice, spoke of his approaching death, and announced that he had deposited his will in the hands of the magistrates of the city of K. His presentiments were justified: he died the next year. His son, who bore his name, went immediately to R—sitten, to take possession of his inheritance; his mother and sisters were his companions. The young lord appeared to be inclined to all the vices. On his arrival at R—sitten, he drew upon himself the hatred of all his companions in the manor: the first act of his will was about to turn everything in the domain upside down, when the justice declared that he formally opposed the orders given by this young madman, until after the will of his father was read, which could alone confer upon him in a reasonable manner the rights that he so arrogantly assumed.

The unexpected resistance on the part of a man who was nothing in his eyes but an upper servant, transported the young lord with anger. But the justice knew how to hold his own against the storm, and maintained courageously the inviolability of his functions. He went so far as to order young Hubert to leave R—sitten until the day fixed for the